Hasbro Won’t Mind If You Design (And Sell) Your Own 3D-Printed Toys
The advent of online file sharing made it easy for anyone to copy and distribute media for free, and many feel—and fear—that 3D printing will eventually do the same for physical products. So it’s surprisingly refreshing to hear that a corporation like Hasbro has decided to embrace 3D printing, and will work with Shapeways to allow fans to design and sell their own toys based on the company’s properties.
Timed to correspond with the start of Comic-Con later this week, this morning the two companies officially unveiled SuperFanArt, a dedicated website that will allow fans and artists to showcase their creations based on existing Hasbro toy lines, starting with My Little Pony. The site isn’t just a place for amateur designers to show off their creations, though. They’ll actually be able to sell them to the public, produced through Shapeways’ existing 3D printing infrastructure.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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The advent of online file sharing made it easy for anyone to copy and distribute media for free, and many feel—and fear—that 3D printing will eventually do the same for physical products. So it’s surprisingly refreshing to hear that a corporation like Hasbro has decided to embrace 3D printing, and will work with Shapeways to allow fans to design and sell their own toys based on the company’s properties.
